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Saina dominates at the semi-final
Ace Indian shuttler and World No.6 Saina Nehwal produced a dominating performance in the semi-finals of $700,000 China Open Superseries Premier as she defeated the World ranked 17 Chinese player Liu Xin 21-17 21-17 in a match which lasted for 47 minutes.
The 24-year-old Saina, who enjoyed a 1-0 head-to-head record against the Chinese prior to this game started the match on a positive note as she took a two point advantage before the mid game interval of the opening game.
Liu was excellent with her defensive shots but Saina displayed some deft net play against her rival, stroking in some brilliantaly timed volleys which gave her a strong six points lead and made the scores 19-13 but Liu fought back strongly and grabbed the next four points in quick succession to reduce the lead margin to just two. Saina kept her calm and clinched the next two points to seal the opening game in 24 minutes.
Similar story in the second game
In the second game, Lin's determination helped her take a 4-1 lead to start with but it was not too long before Saina came back into the fray with her excellent drop shots and took a two point lead before the mid game interval of the second game.
Liu made a lot of errors in the second game as she was unable to control the sideways drift. Trailing 11-14, Liu made a good comeback as she won the next five points in a row to take the lead but Saina was in no mood to make the game any more interesting as she reeled of six points in quick time to take six game points.
Saina failed to convert the first one but was lucky enough to convert the second as Liu lobbed a shuttle wide.
Gunning for her third title of the year
If Saina wins this tournement then this would be her third title of the year as she already won the Indian Open Grand Prix in January and Australian Open Superseries in June.
In the championship match Saina Nehwal will take on the World No. 35 Japanese shuttler Akane Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi, who stunned the World No. 2 Wang Shixian in the second round caused another huge upset as she defeated the World ranked 8 Korean shuttler Yeon Ju Bae 21-10 25-23 in the semis.
In men’s singles semifinal Kidambi Srikanth will lock horns with World ranked 25 German shuttler Mark Zwiebler.
